Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association

The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) is an organisation founded in 1980 by Freda Glynn, Phillip Batty and John Macumba in order to expose Aboriginal music and culture to the rest of Australia from its Alice Springs media centre through the film-making industry, commencing broadcast in 1988. CAAMA Productions is currently the largest indigenous production house in Australia. The organisation is particularly focused on the involvement of the local indigenous community in their production. It has been argued that the establishment of CAAMA and the spread of communications technology could threaten the relationship between generations and the respect for traditional knowledge.

In 1980, CAAMA originally established itself as a public radio station by two Aboriginal people and one ‘whitefella’. The success of the station quickly grew, leading its content to extend into music (country-western and Aboriginal rock), call-ins, discussion, and news and current affairs. Broadcasts were made in six different languages, alongside English, and operated about fifteen hours every day. Later expansions saw the station move into AM and shortwave broadcasts with educational programmes, live recordings of Aboriginal bands, and commercials for local Aboriginal products and services. In 1984, CAAMA started to produce a video newsletter to circulate to those communities without easy access to radio facilities.

CAAMA obtained its Regional Commercial Television Services license in 1986 after concern was raised that Australia’s first satellite (AUSSAT), which was set to bring commercial television to regional and remote sections of Australia, would have a detrimental impact on Aboriginal languages and cultures in Central Australia (Bell 2008). As such, CAAMA made a bid to obtain the licence being offered in 1985 via the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal Central Zone RCTS licence hearings process. Ginsberg (1993) notes their bid was a symbolic act that was then taken seriously, as “the tribunal provided the arena for the articulation of national media policies at least nominally in support of the concerns of remote-living Aboriginal people.” (1993:n.p.) In January, 1988 the private commercial television station they owned, Imparja, began broadcasting, servicing at least 100,000 viewers in Central Australia (Batty 1992).

Imparja had contributed to a visible increase of Aboriginal identity in the Australian media landscape. The station was crucial in developing content which attempted to maintain and sustain Aboriginal culture. One example included "Nganampa-Anwernekenbe" [Ours], the first entirely indigenous language television programme sub-titled in English produced in Australia, which reflected Aboriginal culture through story telling and unique performing and visual arts content. Another were the "Bath Time Good Time" cleanliness and "Cus Congress" anti alcohol community service advertisements which aimed to promote better life style and health in a culturally appropriate and effective manner. 1991 saw a turn to independently created films about, or created by, Aboriginal people. The series of films lasted several months and aired every Saturday during its production season.

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